Zucco's next court date is June 29.

The Republican | Michael S. GordonMay 11, 2012 | PALMER -- Josephine Zucco, 75, of Ludlow in Palmer District Court Friday for her arraignment on vehicular homicide charges in connection with the death in April of motorcyclist Bradford R. Storozuk, 36, of Stafford Springs, Ct.

PALMER -- A 75-year-old Ludlow woman was ordered not to drive as a condition of her release after her arraignment on a motor vehicle homicide charge in Palmer District Court on Friday in connection with the death of a Stafford Springs, Conn. motorcyclist.

Josephine T. Zucco appeared before Judge Patricia T. Poehler on the charge, which she denied. She also was charged with failure to yield to an approaching vehicle. She will return to court on June 29 for a pretrial conference.

She appeared to be shaking as she stood before the court, her husband by her side.

The accident happened on April 21 in Wilbraham. Details of the accident that claimed the life of Bradford R. Storozuk, 36, were not read in court.

Police have said that the crash happened just before 1 p.m. as Storozuk rode his 2011 Harley Davidson east on Boston Road. Zucco was operating a 2008 Buick Lucerne west on Boston Road when she pulled into Storozuk's path of travel as she was making a left turn into the Boston Road plaza, police said.

Assistant District Attorney Neil L. Desroches told the court that the conditions of Zucco's release were agreed upon with her attorney, Vincent A. Bongiorni, who was not able to attend the proceeding.

Desroches said Zucco should not be allowed to operate a motor vehicle. He said her right to operate a motor vehicle also has been suspended by the registry of motor vehicles, the result of Wilbraham police filing an immediate threat.

Poehler agreed to the conditions, and also told Zucco that as part of the conditions of her release she must not commit a crime.

"Even if the registry gives you your license back you cannot operate a motor vehicle," Poehler said.

Zucco declined comment afterward. The only representative from Storozuk's family was a friend who also declined to speak with a reporter.

A lawyer for the state and two nurses said nothing was done wrong in the treatment of Cynthia Brace.

Cynthia Brace

SPRINGFIELD – There was nothing “sudden or silent” about the death Cynthia Brace endured at the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow in August 2005, the lawyer for her estate argued Tuesday.

Shawn P. Allyn, who brought suit in U.S. District Court on behalf of Brace’s estate and her husband Cecil Brace, said her death was the result of improper assessment, lack of communications and lack of monitoring and treatment of her condition as she experienced alcohol withdrawal.

Edward McDonough, representing the state and two nurses at the jail – the three named defendants in the civil suit – said Brace’s death certificate “is unshakable evidence in this case.”

Showing the death certificate on a monitor in the federal courtroom, he said the cause of death is listed as cardiac arrhythmia.

“It does not say she died from alcohol withdrawal,” he said.

The jury will continue deliberations Wednesday after deliberating for about four hours Tuesday.

Cynthia Brace, 41, was arrested along with her son and husband Cecil in 2005 for essentially hijacking the home of an elderly friend in Holyoke, assaulting the man and turning his house into a drug den.

Family members pleaded guilty to charges in 2006, including Cecil Brace who admitting assaulting the homeowner, receiving stolen property and possessing cocaine.

McDonough said Steven Gobielle and Jennifer Kane, nurses who were on duty at the jail when Brace was brought in after her arrest and when she died, have for seven years “been unfairly and publicly blamed for this death.” Gobielle and Kane are two of the named defendants, with the other being the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

McDonough attacked the reputation of defense expert witness Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, who he said testified like “a hired gun.”

Laposata told jurors that Brace died of “untreated opiate and ethanol (alcohol) withdrawal.”

McDonough accused Laposata of purposely forgetting her file on the case when she traveled here to testify from Rhode Island.

“She didn’t want me to see the file. She didn’t want you to see the file,” he said.

McDonough said “when cornered,” Laposata couldn’t deny what was written on the death certificate as cause of death.

“What did Steve and Jen have to do with that?” he said. “Nothing...Exonerate these two nurses.”

Allyn said Brace is dead because of “two people (Gobielle and Kane) who failed to do their jobs.”

He said Kane did not do a complete medical intake of Brace, and just sent her to segregation without any medical plan after doing a “mini-intake.”

“I never told you the Brace family was a perfect family,” Allyn said. He said Cynthia Brace “may have been lost in her ways” but documents show she sought addiction treatment at different points in her history.

The auction is at noon at Ludlow Town Hall.

LUDLOW -- The town will hold a multi property real estate auction Thursday at noon at the Town Hall.

The live auction, conducted by The Zekos Group, Municipal Auction Strategies, will feature two single family homes at 52 West Belmont Street and 193 Holyoke Street, a commercial property at 1426 Center Street and six land parcels.

The properties will be offered to the highest bidder in an open and public process, Zekos Group President Paul T. Zekos said.

Other properties to be sold at the auction are located on Irla Drive, Oak Knolls Circle, Woodside Road, Chapin Street, Lyon Street and Center Street.

Prospective bidders will be required to present positive identification and a deposit in the form of a bank check to qualify to bid. Interested parties are urged to research the properties and contact The Zekos Group at 508-842-6400 or visit the website at www.zekosgroup.com for more information.

Brace's family was seeking unspecified monetary damages after she died from alcohol and drug withdrawal in the jail's custody in 2005.

Cynthia Brace

SPRINGFIELD -- After eight hours of deliberations in U.S. District Court, six jurors found in favor of Hampden County jail officials Wednesday in a wrongful death suit filed by the family of a 41-year-old inmate who died of drug withdrawal while in the jail's custody in 2005.

A lawyer for Cynthia Brace's family was suing for wrongful death, alleging medical personnel at the jail in Ludlow prompted the woman's cardiac arrest by not providing proper treatment when she was in the throes of dire opiate and alcohol withdrawal. Edward McDonough, a lawyer for the jail, countered that medical personnel had been watching Brace closely and her death was sudden and unexpected.

Jurors came to their verdict after a week of testimony; Brace's family was seeking unspecified monetary damages.

The plaintiff's lawyer, Shawn Allyn, said he and the family were disappointed with the verdict, but said the case prompted changes in medical protocol at the jail that will serve future inmates suffering from substance abuse withdrawal.

"It was a difficult case due to the nature of the death, but the case did effectuate some change for inmates. The Hampden County House of Correction has since changed its alcohol withdrawal protocols and now has intravenous medication," which has a swifter response to fend off the potentially fatal effects of acute withdrawal, Allyn said.

McDonough said that the case was a sad one because of Brace's death at 41 years old, and that the vast majority of inmates who enter the county jails are suffering from substance abuse.

"It's sad to see someone die that young," McDonough said. "But we're glad the jury agreed that the care and treatment (Brace received at the jail) had nothing to do with her sudden cardiac arrest.

On the first day of testimony, jurors received a tour of the area in the jail where Brace was being held and saw the segregation room where she was being held. Federal civil rights charges were thrown out earlier in the case.

Local communities welcome the recycling checks.

The Republican | Mark M. MurrayFILE PHOTO -- A City of Chicopee recycling truck dumps a load of plastic bottles at the Springfield Materials Recycling Facility at 84 Birnie Ave.

SPRINGFIELD -- A total of 77 Western Massachusetts municipalities recycled more than 31,000 tons of plastic, paper, metals and glass during 2011, with the communities receiving more than $1.4 million in payments for the recyclables delivered.

Among the top performing local communities and the payments they received were: Westfield, $102,172; Longmeadow, $91,877; Northampton, $76,592; Holyoke, $76,524; East Longmeadow, $75,921; South Hadley, $66,259; West Springfield, $58,380; and Ludlow, $52,490.

The recyclables were processed at the Springfield Materials Recycling Facility, a public facility owned by the state Department of Environmental Protection and operated by Waste Management Recycle America.

Communities receive a flat payment of $15.67 per ton of recyclables delivered to the Springfield Materials Recycling Center on Birnie Avenue in Springfield.

They also receive a revenue share when the markets buying the recycled material are good.

Because of positive market conditions in 2011, the municipalities got $1.4 million for the recyclables delivered last year, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Through their recycling efforts, the communities saved an estimated $2 million in disposal costs for 2011, the department reports.

The totals for Springfield in the report look low, at $16,631 in payments, but those are only for the School Department.

Gregory Superneau, the Springfield representative on the advisory board of the Birnie Avenue facility advisory board, said the rest of the city’s recyclables go to Waste Management Automated Materials Handling on Tremont Street.

That facility is a single stream, meaning paper and plastic can be placed in the same containers by residents.

Superneau said the city delivered over 81,000 tons to that plant and had over $170,000 in revenue from it.

Karen Bouquillon, an advisory board member and Northampton Solid Waste Management Supervisor, said “Northampton is thrilled with this kind of revenue.”

She said Northampton’s numbers are especially impressive since it is the only “drop off community” that has been able to achieve such high revenues.

Northampton does not have curbside collection and only serves half the population, she said.

Barry Searle, a board member and Westfield deputy health director, said, “We’re obviously very pleased to receive these checks and it is a confirmation of robust programs that are out here in Western Massachusetts.”

He said the materials recycling facility in Western Massachusetts has one of the most favorable payment system in place compare to other such facilities in the state.

Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard K. Sullivan Jr. said, “Diverting these materials minimizes the energy used for extraction of resources necessary to produce the plastic, metal and paper we use every day, and provides real environmental benefits to Massachusetts residents.”

Once the sorted recyclable materials are sold, they are made into hardcover book board, game board, new metal cans, polyester fiber from plastic bottles, and even new recycling bins.

In 2011, residents were allowed to recycle two new items: empty non-hazardous aerosol cans, and clear plastic clamshell packaging.

Empty aerosol cans that once contained health and beauty products, food products, air freshener, and laundry products can now be recycled in local programs.

The recycling facility is also accepting clear plastic clamshell packaging – the hinged containers found in the produce, deli and bakery departments at local grocery stores.

The victim, a 21-yaer-old Ludlow man, remains at Baystate with serious head injuries.

Republican file photo03.09.11 | Photo by Julian Feller-Cohen – A West Springfield Police Department cruiser.

WEST SPRINGFIELD - A 21-year-old Ludlow man, badly beaten by three men last week in the parking lot of Mingles Lounge on Riverdale Street, remains at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield with serious head injuries, police said.

One of his attackers, Kenneth James Jiles Jr., 26, of 161 West St., Apt. 27, Ware, denied a charge of attempted murder and other charges and was ordered held in lieu of $50,000 cash bail.

A bindover hearing to determine whether the case will be heard in District Court or Superior Court was set for June 4.

Police Capt. Daniel Spaulding said the incident began shortly before 1:30 a.m. on May 8 when police were summoned to a disturbance at the lounge.

Spaulding said the incident began when an altercation broke out either inside the bar or near the front door.

The man who was ultimately severely beaten was a friend of that initial victim. “This kid happened to be a friend trying to get the other guys off of him and they turned the attack on him,” Spaulding said.

Jiles was the primary aggressor and he repeatedly kicked the fallen victim in the head, Spaulding said, adding that he believes the victim is still in intensive care at Baystate.

Bar personnel broke up the fight, Spaulding said. When police arrived on the scene, they saw the victim motionless on the pavement and the three suspects running away.

They ultimately arrested all three, Spaulding said.

Roger J. Hartman, 23, of 80 Birch Park Circle, and Joshua Pagan of 67 High St., were charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Both denied the charges in district court and were ordered held in lieu of $5,000 cash bail. Pre-trial hearings for both were set for June 4.

Jiles was also charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest.

A witness said Martin was calling the victim a “faggot” and trying to get him to fight, spitting in his face, the prosecutor said.

The Republican / File photo

SPRINGFIELD – A 22-year-old Ludlow man was sentenced Friday after admitting to punching a 57-year-old man causing a serious head injury requiring surgery and an 11-day hospitalization.

Steven Martin was sentenced to 18 months in the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow on a charge of assault and battery.

That will be followed by three years probation on a charge of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury.

As a condition of his probation, Hampden Superior Court Judge Tina S. Page said Martin must have no contact with the victim or any member of his immediate family.

Assistant District Attorney Richard B. Morse said Ludlow police got a call May 9, 2011, at about 5 p.m. that a young man was attacking an older man. The victim was unconscious for over five minutes, Morse said.

He said the victim was walking his dog on State Street in Ludlow when he encountered Martin. A witness said Martin was calling the victim a “faggot” and trying to get him to fight, spitting in his face.

Martin ultimately punched the victim in his face and he fell to the ground hitting his head, Morse said.

There was a one inch laceration in the head and a closed skull fracture. On May 17 surgery was performed to remove part of the skull and part of the brain.

Another surgery was performed in May to reattach the skull piece.

Morse read an impact statement from the victim, who was in the courtroom with his ex-wife, who has been caring for him since the surgery along with their children.

The man said he lost his job because of his injury, but more than that, he almost died.

“I was beaten up for no reason,” the man wrote. He said he needed to learn to walk, talk and feed himself again. He has nightmares all the time, forgets things, has dizzy spells, is nervous and anxious and “scared as hell” something like this will happen to me again.

Morse, who said the victim doesn’t remember the events leading up to the punch, said he senses the man was outspoken about the activity of some youths in the neighborhood. He said witnesses said Martin, who is much larger than the victim, was pursuing the victim.

Defense lawyer James J. Bregianes told Page that Martin is seriously sorry for the damage he has done to the victim and his family.

Police said speed was clearly a factor as the car was traveling at a high-rate of speed when it went off the road.

LUDLOW – A driver suffered serious head injuries Monday when his car went off the road at Cady and Grimes streets and struck a tree, police said.

The driver, whose name was not released, was taken by ambulance to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield for treatment, Ludlow Police Sgt. Joseph Metcalfe said.

Metcalfe said the man was driving a Chrysler Sebring at a high rate of speed when the car went off the road just before 6:30 p.m.

The Hampden District Attorney's office was notified, and the Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section was called to assist with the investigation.

Cady Street was closed for more than four hours while police investigated and cleared the crash site, Metcalfe said.

More information will be posted on MassLive as it becomes available.

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State and Ludlow police continue to probe a Cady Street car crash in which the male driver suffered head and other serious injuries.

LUDLOW – Authorities this morning were unable to immediately provide an update on the condition of a male driver who suffered serious head injuries when his car crashed into a tree off Cady Street just before 6:30 p.m. Monday.

The driver, whose name was not released, was taken by ambulance to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield for treatment, according to Ludlow Police Sgt. Joseph Metcalfe.

Metcalfe said the 29-year-old man was driving a Chrysler Sebring that was traveling at a high rate of speed when it went off the road near Grimes Street and struck a tree. It was not immediately clear if wet roads played a role in the crash, but speed was definitely a factor, Metcalfe said.

Massachusetts State Police investigators assigned to the office of Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni and troopers from the Collision Analysis & Reconstruction Section are probing the serious crash.

Cady Street was closed for about four hours while authorities investigated and cleared the crash site, Metcalfe said.

A 22News report said the unidentified man was "clinging to life," though that could not immediately be confirmed this morning with authorities. Metcalfe described told the TV station that the crash victim sustained "serious blunt force trauma injuries."

MAP of the Ludlow crash scene:

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The proposed school budget calls for the reduction of 10 teaching positions, including a Portuguese language teacher at the high school.

LUDLOW — Foreign language teachers at Tuesday’s School Committee meeting proposed adding Portuguese language instruction at Baird Middle School.

School Committee members said they support the idea.

“I love the idea of Portuguese at the middle school if we are able to maintain it at the high school,” School Committee member James P. Harrington said.

School Committee members at the direction of selectmen presented a proposed fiscal 2013 school budget that is $579,013 smaller than this year’s budget.

The proposed budget calls for the reduction of 10 teaching positions, including a Portuguese language teacher at the high school.

Many students in Ludlow are of Portuguese descent, and parents said the students should have the chance to learn about their culture.

Teachers said that Spanish is offered at the middle school, and if students are to get to the most advanced level of Portuguese in high school, they need to begin learning the language in middle school.

School Committee members said there is a chance that a grant may be received to help fund Advanced Placement language courses at the high school, which means that more funds could be freed up to offer Portuguese at the middle school.

School Committee member Jacob Oliveira said he would like to see foreign languages begun in kindergarten and first grade in order for students to become truly proficient.

Interim School Superintendent Donna Hogan asked that a curriculum committee survey nearby communities to see how many foreign languages are being offered.

The School Committee has received a 156-signature petition from high school students opposing the proposed cut of a Portuguese language teacher at the high school.

School Committee members say they are lobbying selectmen and the Finance Committee to see what funds can be added back to the School Department budget.

The annual Town Meeting at which voters will approve a budget for next year has been continued until June 18.

School officials said they hope to have support from the Finance Committee by June 18 for increasing the allocation for next year’s school budget.

Six Flags held a media day Wednesday to show off its new Goliath roller coaster

Dave Roback / The Republican05/21/12-Ludlow - Members of the Local 1035 Teamsters, Gary Prentiss, Lew Voyer and Ron Christiana shadow a Coca-Cola delivery on Route 21 in Ludlow on Monday. The Teamsters who are on strike were asking folks to boycott Coke.

AGAWAM - Strikers associated with the East Hartford, Conn. Coca-Cola bottling plant picketed outside the service entrance at Six Flags Wednesday as the amusement park held a media day to show off its new Goliath roller coaster.

Six Flags serves Coca Cola products.

Strikers, members of the Teamsters Local 1035, could also be seen picketing a Coca-Cola delivery truck Tuesday morning outside the Pride gasoline station and convenience store on Center Street in Ludlow. Strikers said they were asking patrons to boycott Coke.

The Hartford Courant reported about 350 bottling and warehouse workers and drivers started picketing about a week ago.

The workers want to preserve the status-quo health insurance without employee paid premiums, according to the Courant.

The company says it’s unfair for union members to pay nothing into health insurance when all other Coca-Cola employees have to pay in.

A press release issued by Teamsters Local 1035 states “Members and their families are prepared for a “long struggle.”

Officials expect the detours to be in place for about 6 weeks.

The Republican | Dave RobackThis area of 116 in Amherst near Atkins Farms will be closed to traffic for about six weeks while crews work on construction.

AMHERST — Beginning next Thursday, the westerly end of Bay Road and about 400 feet of the adjoining sections of Route 116 in both directors will be closed while crews tackle the last of the major work on the Atkins Corner project.

State officials have put detours in place, but Atkins Farm Country Market will remain open, Town Engineer Jason O. Skeels said.

Motorist should expect delays.

Skeels said work is expected to be finished in about six weeks, and the two roundabouts in the area should be operational after that. He said the detours will remain even when crews are not working because of the nature of the work they are doing. Work on the project, which took more than a decade of planning, began in March 2011.

The redesign is intended to improve safety and traffic flow with the roundabouts at Route 116 and West Bay Road and at Route 116 and Bay Road. The road will be slightly wider.

The design also includes a multi-use bicycle lane. The Ludlow-based Baltazar Contractors were awarded the contract for the $6 million project in January 2011. State officials wanted to wait until area colleges finished the spring semester before embarking on the work.

Motorists traveling Route 116 north from Granby will be detoured from West Bay Road to South Maple Street in Hadley, then to Moody Bridge Road-West Pomeroy Lane, rejoining Route 116 north. For those traveling south on Route 116, the detour will be the same but in reverse, beginning on West Pomeroy-Moody Bridge Road, to South Maple, to Bay Road, then West Bay Road to Route 116 south.

Those traveling from Belchertown will be detoured at Southeast Street to Pomeroy Lane, then to West Pomeroy Lane-Moody Bridge Road, to South Maple Street, to Bay Road in Hadley, and to West Bay Road in Amherst.

Those traveling from Hadley will be detoured at South Maple to Moody Bridge-West Pomeroy, to Pomeroy, and to Southeast Street.

Trucks detours will be adjusted slightly.

Police will be posted at busy intersections during peak hours and motorists are asked to obey all signs and officers.

Atkins Corner Detours

Ludlow and state police continue to probe the crash.

LUDLOW - Investigators continue to probe a single-car crash on Cady Street early Monday night that sent a 29-year-old Ludlow man to Baystate Medical Center in Chicopee with serious injuries.

Police have identified the victim as Michael Murray. A Baystate spokeswoman could not provide any information on Murray Friday morning.

Police have said the victim was driving a Chrysler Sebring at a high rate of speed shortly before 6:30 p.m. when it went off the road near Grimes Street and struck a tree.

Cady Street was closed for about four hours while authorities investigated and cleared the crash site,

Lt. Paul Madera said state police are assisting in the investigation.

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Police responded to the river along Red Bridge Road for a 911 call but found the man already out of the water when they arrived.

LUDLOW - A swimmer was taken to the hospital to be checked out after experiencing diffulties while swimming in the Chicopee River Monday afternoon, police said.

The man, whose name was not released, was pulled from the water by people who were on the shore, said Ludlow Police Lt. Paul Madera.

Police responded to the river along Red Bridge Road for a 911 call but found the man already out of the water when they arrived, he said. He was described as alert and conscious. He was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield as a precaution.

Two of this friends were trapped on the far side of the river and could not swim back, he said. The Wilbraham Fire Department was called to deploy a boat to go retrieve them, he said.

The three had been swimming in the river and they apparently failed to take into consideration the strength of the current, Madera said.

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Mayor Michael Tautznik hopes to see the landfill solar project providing electricity soon.

EASTHAMPTON — Engineers for Borrego Solar Systems Inc. are trying to work out another glitch in the city’s Oliver Street solar array project so it can become fully operational.

Borrego, which has an office in Lowell, was on the site of the solar array last week working on seeding and grading the landfill site and trying to solve one more problem with an automatic shutoff should the system need to shut down in the case of live wires.

Mayor Michael A. Tautznik said a prior communication glitch between Western Massachusetts Electric and Verizon has been solved.

Michael A. Tautznik

While the system has been connected to the Western Massachusetts Electric grid, it has not been providing power in any kind of sustained way, he said.

“We’ve been start and stop,” he said. The system, consequently, has not been declared operational.

“The 10-year clock (with Borrego) hasn’t started running.” The city signed a 10-year lease with the company to provide power to the city.

The array was the first such project under construction in the state. The 2.3-megawatt installation is expected to save residents $1.5 million on power over 10 years.

But being the first has produced minor issues. And Tautznik said the city cannot operate the system until it is safe.

Tautznik had been hoping the project would save the city $84,000 in electricity costs this fiscal year.

Work on the array was completed in December.

The mayor said he expects the project to be operational any day now. “We’re looking forward to it being operational.”

He said this way the city will start saving money and adding electricity to the power grid.

Solar projects have come on line in Holyoke and Springfield. Ludlow officials signed a lease with Borrego in March and Amherst officials are still planning to move ahead with a project on a capped landfill in that town, among the area communities seeking power from the sun.

The 17-year-old girl, whom police declined to identify, was riding on the back of a motorcycle that collided with a Dodge Caravan at the intersection of Maynard and Three Rivers Roads, according to police.

Republican file photo

WILBRAHAM — Police here are investigating the third serious motorcycle crash in about six weeks, but this time a rider got lucky compared with other recent crash victims.

On Monday night, following a pair of motorcycle deaths last month, a 17-year-old girl riding on the back of a bike driven by an unidentified male sustained serious injuries after a crash in North Wilbraham, according to Wilbraham Police Sgt. Robert Zollo. The extent of the girl's injuries were not immediately known, and an update on her condition was unavailable Tuesday morning.

Zollo said the 8:57 p.m. incident at the intersection of Maynard and Three Rivers roads is being investigated by officers Joseph Brewer and John Siniscalchi, the latter of whom is the police department's accident-reconstruction specialist.

The crash involved a 2002 Suzuki motorcycle and a 1999 Dodge Caravan, police said. The operator of the motorcycle was treated for minor injuries at the scene, but his teenage passenger was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield for treatment, police said.

A preliminary investigation revealed the motorcycle was traveling northeast on Maynard Road when it collided with the minivan, which was southbound on Three Rivers Road. Police said the motorcycle apparently was unable to stop when it reached the intersection of Three Rivers Road, colliding with the minivan. Charges are pending, according to police, who did not indicate whom might be cited in connection with the crash.

Zollo said more information would become available as the investigation progresses.

The sergeant cited the recent motorcycle crashes as reasons why motorists — both car drivers and two-wheel drivers — need to be aware of other operators. "It goes both ways," Zollo said, adding that bikers and drivers have to be more mindful of each other on the road.

Last month, two people died in motorcycle crashes in Wilbraham.

On April 12, John T. Lander, 46, of Hampden, was killed after a head-on collision with an oncoming SUV on Main Street near Merrill Road, police said. A few weeks later, Bradford R. Storozuk, 36, of Stafford Springs, Conn., died after a car on Boston Road pulled into his path of travel, police said. The driver of the car, Josephine T. Zucco, 75, of Ludlow, was charged with vehicular homicide and failure to yield for an approaching vehicle, police said.

In one instance, the driver of the car was determined to be at fault, while in the other it was the motorcyclist who was wrong, according to Zollo. "It takes two to tango, unfortunately," he said.

A preliminary investigation of the April 12 crash indicated Lander was riding southbound on Main Street when he entered the northbound lane and struck a Ford SUV, sending the motorcycle and Lander hurtling to the ground. Siniscalchi determined that the motorcycle had been traveling almost 100 miles per hour at the time of the crash.

The Main Street building that formerly housed Gales Newsstand was in the process of being renovated when flames broke out, Palmer Fire Capt. David Pranaitis said.

05/29/12-Palmer-Staff Photo by Dave Roback-Structure fire at Main and Central Street in Palmer.

Updates a story posted at 9:41 p.m. Tuesday, May 29.

PALMER — Fire ripped through a vacant Main Street building that was home to the former Gales Newsstand on Tuesday night, leveling the structure and threatening the building next door. Its cause remains under investigation.

Palmer Fire Department Capt. David Pranaitis said the state fire marshal's office and Palmer Police Department are investigating.

The fire was reported just after 9 p.m., and firefighters were on scene until close to 3 a.m. Wednesday. No one was injured, Pranaitis said.

"It was already fully involved when we got there. ... Fire was already going through the roof," he said, adding it was threatening the building next door, which houses several apartments.

All three families next door were evacuated, as the building was filled with smoke and had water damage. The Red Cross also responded to the scene to help the displaced families, he said.

The 2½-story building that formerly housed Gales was built in 1870 and is owned by James R. Carvalho of Ludlow, who bought it in 2009, the year the newsstand closed. Gales was reportedly the longest-running business in town. A deli mart replaced it, but that business did not last long.

Pranaitis said the vacant building at 1359-1369 Main St. was in the midst of being renovated, possibly for a pizza shop. Because the interior had been gutted, the fire spread quickly, he said. There were no fire stops.

Part of Main Street was closed Tuesday night, he said, because the front of the building was threatening to collapse. Pranaitis said the majority of the thunderstorm had passed, leaving firefighters to battle the blaze in heavy rain.

Power lines were coming off the burning building, making it a dangerous situation, he said.

He said firefighters focused on saving the apartment building next door at 1371 Main St., which also housed a barber shop. That building, known as the Davis block, was the original police station in town.

In addition to Palmer fire, the response included departments from Three Rivers, Bondsville, Ware, Warren, Wilbraham, Ludlow and Monson. An incident rehabilitation unit from the state Department of Fire Services also responded.

The building was valued at $164,100, according to information from the assessor's office.

The young man who was the victim of the statutory rape conviction asked the judge not to take Lavoie away from him.

The Republican file photo | Michael GordonLisa Lavoie

SPRINGFIELD — Lisa M. Lavoie – the former Holyoke middle school teacher on probation for having sex with a 15-year-old student in 2009 – was sent to jail for 18 months Wednesday.

Hampden Superior Court Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty sentenced Lavoie because she violated a condition of probation that forbid her to have contact with the now 18-year-old man.

The young man, whose name is not being used here because he is the victim of a sexual crime, gave an impassioned appeal to Moriarty to spare Lavoie jail time.

One of the conditions of Lavoie’s probation when she pleaded guilty in early 2011 to statutory rape from the 2009 allegation was to have no contact with the boy or his family.

The young man on Wednesday told Moriarty both he and Lavoie have had difficult lives and found a deep friendship with each other.

He asked Moriarty “please don’t take her away from me.”

When Lavoie was led from the courtroom in handcuffs to begin her sentence at the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center in Chicopee, the young man began crying and said, “It’s not right.”

On March 9, a routine but unannounced home visit to Lavoie’s Ludlow apartment by Probation Officer Kevin Horne and Ludlow police found the young man in Lavoie’s closet, Horne testified Wednesday.

In his appeal to the judge, the young man said he went to her apartment because he had been kicked out of his home and had no place to go.

Horne said Lavoie told him that night the young man was crying and although she told him she could have no contact with him, he stepped into the apartment anyway, so she was going to let him use her telephone.

Horne also testified that after Lavoie had been arrested that night for the probation violation, and been released on $25,000 bail, he saw her April 17 in a car with the young man.

He said a prosecutor reported to him seeing Lavoie, 27, and a person he believed was the young man at a local mall.

When Moriarty sentenced her to five years probation in 2011 he said he didn’t believe Lavoie was “a sexual predator likely to reoffend.”

At the 2011 sentencing on the statutory rape, Assistant District Attorney Patrick S. Sabbs asked Moriarty to sentence her to three to five years in state prison.

Horne asked Moriarty on Wednesday to now impose the three- to five-year sentence Sabbs had asked for originally.

Sabbs told Moriarty Wednesday his office would defer to the Probation Department’s recommendation, but also said his office would recommend an 18-month jail sentence.

Defense lawyer David P. Hoose asked Moriarty not to send Lavoie to jail, but to keep her on probation, removing the condition she cannot see the young man.

Moriarty said his 2011 decision was based on his assessment of Lavoie as someone who was not evil and was amenable to rehabilitation.

He said Lavoie’s actions, particularly the testimony she had been seen with the young man twice after he was found in her closet, convinced him Lavoie “has no intent of abiding by court orders.”

The judge said Lavoie in his eyes is no longer a candidate for probation, so he was sending her to jail.

Hoose began Wednesday’s session on the case by saying Moriarty should dismiss the violation of probation because when the victim became 18 years old, it violated Lavoie’s constitutional rights to restrict her from seeing him.

Moriarty denied Hoose’s motion to dismiss the violation.

Hoose said Lavoie has suffered greatly since charges were brought against her.

“She has the red A all over her,” he said. She is afraid when she goes out in public people are looking at her and she can’t find a job because she is a registered sex offender, he said.

An open house is planned at the home at 111 Greenwich Road.

The Republican | Lori StabileSenior carpentry students from Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School stand in front of the house at 111 Greenwich Road in Ware that they helped to build. They are from left to right, Lyle A. Bachand and Kelly L. Ingram, of Belchertown; Jeremy M. Beaulieu, of Palmer; Brian D. Page, of Hubbardston; John M. Cockshaw, of Palmer; Jamie S. Bovat, of Belchertown; Joshua H. Plouffe, of Warren; and John A. Portelada, of Ludlow.

WARE — For the past two years, Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School carpentry students have put their skills to the test by building a home at 111 Greenwich Road.

The finished product is nothing short of breathtaking — a 3,800-square-foot farmhouse set back from the road on 17 acres. Beige with stonework inlaid in the front, the inside is spacious, with white cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom.

On a recent weekday, eight seniors were on the grounds, looking over the home that they first started in November 2010.

"I'd live here if I could," said Jamie S. Bovat, 19, of Belchertown.

Carpentry instructor John Weyant explained that people who are interested in having a home built by the Palmer students must go through an application process. The homeowner buys all the materials, and must have the proper permits and the foundation poured. Then the students can take over.

The public can see the students' handiwork at a June 10 open house.

"It was a learning experience," said John M. Cockshaw, 18, of Palmer.

Weyant said the students did the framing for the house, installed the windows and doors, and also were responsible for the cabinetry.

submitted photoPathfinder carpentry student John Cockshaw, 18, of Palmer, works on the home at 111 Greenwich Road in Ware.

"This is definitely the biggest home we've ever done," Weyant said.

"This is the classroom for the 11th and 12th grade. It's vocational education at its best," Weyant added.

Altogether, 16 juniors and seniors worked on the home. Weyant said the homeowner not only helps the students learn their future trade, but also realizes a substantial cost savings. The school's heating, ventilation and air conditioning department also worked on the house, which has four bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms, he said.

"It's definitely a piece of art," Kelly L. Ingram, 18, of Belchertown, said.

Jeremy M. Beaulieu, 18, of Palmer, said the project was fun and that it took "blood, sweat and tears" to get it done.

Weyant said the first winter, the students spent a lot of time shoveling the work site because there was so much snow.

John A. Portelada, 18, of Ludlow, said working on the house will help him after graduation. He plans to work with his father, an electrician, and he said he has a better understanding of wiring after being involved in the house project.

Homeowner Patricia A. Clark said the house was built on her great-grandfather's land. She said she and her husband, Thomas W. Clark, were not in any rush to move into a new home, so they could wait two years, plus she was familiar with the Pathfinder program.

"It was a good fit," Clark said.

She said they plan to move into the new home in three weeks. She said the project inspired the Quaboag Hills Chamber of Commerce, which is where she works, to come up with a teacher of the year award.

"We're really looking forward to being in it," Clark said about the new home. "I enjoyed working with the students."

The building was under renovation and the owner planned to open a pizza shop there.

This is an update of a story posted Wednesday morning at 9:01 a.m.

PALMER - Lightning may be the reason why a landmark downtown building that housed the former Gales Newsstand went up in flames, leaving behind only a heap of charred wood and part of a burned wall.

The fire, which engulfed the vacant building at 1359-1369 Main St. on Tuesday night, remains under investigation by Palmer police and the state fire marshal's office. Palmer Police Detective Sgt. Scott E. Haley said two witnesses reported seeing a bolt of lightning strike the building.

"We need to check out all angles. The building went up quick," Palmer Fire Chief Alan J. Roy said from the fire scene on Wednesday.

Michael J. Randall, who lives across the street at 1358 Main St., said he and his girlfriend were outside watching the thunderstorm when they saw lightning hit the back of the building.

"A few minutes after, it was in flames," Randall said.

Fire Capt. David Pranaitis said the fire was called in just after 9 p.m., and firefighters were on scene until close to 3 a.m. on Wednesday. No one was injured, Pranaitis said. The fire was knocked down in an hour, Roy said.

"It was already fully involved when we got there. ... Fire was already going through the roof," Pranaitis said, adding it was threatening the apartment building next door at 1371 Main St. so firefighters focused their efforts on saving that structure.

Photo by Mark M. Murray / The Republican A Palmer Fire investigator works at the scene of a fire that destroyed the building at Main and Central streets late Tuesday night.

Roy described the Gales building - built in 1870 - as an old, wooden structure. Because it was under renovation, the inside was gutted and the fire spread quickly. There were no fire stops.

Firefighters went into the apartment building next door, dragging hoses inside to shoot water down on the fire, Roy said. All four families were evacuated, due to the smoke. The Red Cross also responded to the scene to help the displaced families.

Roy said the families were allowed back in the apartment building the next morning; the downstairs barber shop was open for business. The owner of the apartment building, Marc Graveline, praised the firefighters, saying they did an excellent job. That building, known as the Davis block, was the original police station in town.

The 2 1/2 story building that formerly housed Gales is owned by James R. Carvalho, of Ludlow, who bought it in 2009, the year the newsstand closed. Gales was reportedly the longest-running business in town. A deli mart replaced it, but that business did not last long.

Carvalho said he was "overwhelmed" at the loss of his building, but said he would like to rebuild.

"I'm bummed out. I like this building. It was kind of old. It had a personality," Carvalho said, as he looked at the blackened rubble.

Carvalho planned to open a pizza shop there.

"I was supposed to have a pizza oven delivered tomorrow. I had everything in place," Carvalho said.

Part of Main Street was closed Tuesday night, Pranaitis said, because the front of the building was threatening to collapse. Pranaitis said the majority of the thunderstorm had passed, leaving firefighters to battle the blaze in heavy rain.

Power lines were coming off the burning building, making it a dangerous situation, Pranaitis said.

"It was so smoky we couldn't see each other," Roy said.

In addition to Palmer fire, departments from Three Rivers, Bondsville, Ware, Warren, Wilbraham, Ludlow and Monson, and an incident rehabilitation unit from the state Department of Fire Services, also responded.

"The did an outstanding job, above and beyond," Roy said about the firefighters.

The building was valued at $164,100, according to information from the assessor's office.

The loss of the Gales building is the latest downtown structure to go up in flames.

In 2003, fire swept through a building at 1011 Central St., destroying hundreds of antique organs and instruments inside. In 1995, fire ravaged the former Holbrook building on Main Street, and in the late 1970s, fire destroyed a hotel at the corner of Main and Walnut streets - the site is just a few feet away from Tuesday's fire.